As things change daily in Ohio, we’re staying informed by listening to Governor Mike DeWine’s press briefings at 2pm, in addition to updates from UCL and the Public Library.
In particular, we recommend accessing the Public Library’s COVID-19 web page to see what info and resources the Library is sharing daily, such as how to obtain after school snacks provided by the UMC Food Ministry.
Another resource we’d like to pass along is about the management of collections when faced with a public health emergency. Please see the Massachusetts COSTEP website about collections maintenance, environmental cleaning, and library lending:
*Update 3/27/2020: The American Institute for Conservation (AIC) has also published a useful list of Collections Care Amid Covid-19 resources to check out. See the Ohio Preservation Council’s COVID-19 page as well.
As of Monday (3/16/2020) the Preservation Lab staff are practicing safe social distancing by sheltering in place. We have packed up our benches and transformed our personal living spaces into productive places to work from home.
Holly’s adorable nook with typewritten words per day! 
As well as a space-efficient standing Ikea desk made from book shelves on either side… 
… and she even has room for a guest, as well as… 
…a productive administrative space. 
Catarina has intelligently taken over her kitchen for a multipurpose space… 
…since kitchen counters are the perfect height for working while standing! 
She has a separate clean administrative space for conducting research and writing reports… 
… and of course bookbinding models in progress and Nag Hammadi codices! 
Ashleigh’s home office also doubles as a guest room. 
The guest room closet is retrofitted to hold bookbinding supplies. 
A side table next to the bed doubles as another working surface… 
…And empty dresser drawers are now filled with book parts. 
Ashleigh also uses her dining room as a research library. 
While her husband has taken over the front porch – many of our family members are also working from home. 
Here, Chris is being assisted in constructing a cradle by his puppy Jillian. 
And works in a separate room for administrative work. 
Jessica has been hard at work at her cozy home bench. 
Here, Jessica is in the process of cleaning a book spine… 
…and in this photo she’s working on textblock paper repairs. 
Kasie created a beautifully organized workspace this past weekend to hold her tools… 
…her books and supplies… 
And a spot to work with a view! 
Hyacinth’s kitchen table setup is perfect for sewing music. Upsides: great natural light and proximity to coffee. Downside: too close to cookies!
To stay connected, we use iPads or laptops and have a Preservation Lab Microsoft Team set up for instant communication, video chat, and file sharing. VPN and Remote Access were also heroically provided in extremely short notice by UCL IT staff.
Our work from home projects range from online learning opportunities, research we wish we always had the time to do, report writing, model making, exhibit preparation from pre-cut materials prepared ahead of time, box making (from pre-measured books), and general collections treatment.
We also have a longer list of work-from-home-ideas should the pandemic sheltering last more than a few weeks. These include:
- Professional organization committee work (such as AIC/MRCG/& OPC)
- Disaster preparedness updating
- Creating videos
- Writing blogs
- Updating procedures and guidelines
- Preparing instructional materials
- Curriculum creation for teaching
- Fabricating book furniture for Gothic binding treatments
- Making book futons
- Constructing silk screens for washing
- Organizing emails and photography files
- Sierra (online catalog) record cleanup
- Uploading reports to the Preservation Digital Resource Commons
- Creating databases such as one to record exhibition lighting
…And more such as the list provided by Duke’s Preservation Lab Team:
For those interested in learning along with us, the lab’s short list of at-home professional development opportunities include the following FREE courses/webinars:
- Image Permanence Institute’s Photographic Process ID webinars
- AIC Photographic Chemistry for Preservation
- Identifying Museum Insect Pest Damage and Addressing it with Integrated Pest Management
- UCLA History of the Book
- Japanese Culture Through Rare Books
- ALCTS YouTube channel:
- AIC/ECPN’s “Gender Equity in the Conservation Field”
- Lecture on the “Peculiar Problems” of Preservation” with Sanchita Balachandran
- AIC & FAIC YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aiconservation/videos
- DHPSNY’s Preservation in Exhibits
- Online courses from HarvardX
- LinkedIn Learning
With so much evolving on a daily basis, remember to take a second to take care of your mental well-being. We recommend the following UC presentation on Seeking Well-Being: Self Compassion and Mindfulness as well as The Science of of Well-Being course offered by Yale.
Ashleigh Ferguson Schieszer – Special Collections Conservator (PLCH)